10 Seemingly Insignificant Choices That Changed The World Forever

9. The Local Sheriff Who Refused Martin Luther King Jr.'s Arms License

Last year marked the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington in which Martin Luther King Jr. made his now famous "I Have a Dream" speech. King was famously a proponent of pacifist non-violent resistance, but what might be lesser known is that early in his career he applied for a license to carry a weapon. This fact is omitted in favour of the non-violent King; this image is one which is astoundingly more comfortable than the real man. King had just been elected leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association, and following a number of harrowing threats from local whites he applied for a license to carry a weapon for self defence. This decision was rapidly rejected by the local sheriff, but had that sheriff permitted the license, it is hard to see King emerging as a non-violent leader. This decision has had an immense impact on King's legacy; although he did not make, or lead, the Civil Rights Movement (as the movement was so diffuse and diverse) it is impossible to negate his positive contribution to the struggle. The tactics of non-violence remain contentious; the Birmingham campaign of 1963 delivered brutal depictions of women and children being mauled by police dogs. Although the non-violent tactics used by King are still debated, they have been insurmountably useful in establishing a cult-like memory of King. These disturbing and harrowing images have become symbolic of the black freedom struggle, but had that sheriff made the seemingly insignificant decision to allow King to carry a firearm for self defence, it is unlikely that the non-violent wave would have swept over America, and therefore make it possible for legislative barriers to be overcome. King and Gandhi have come to symbolise the non-violent tactic, yet that small decision by the local sheriff to deny King a permit (despite being racially motivated) facilitated his move towards non-violence, and as such is responsible for the way King became a primary leader of the American Civil Rights Movement.